How 12-year-olds can make easy money

Written by alicia bodine| 13/05/2017

Get your child to wash your car if he wants to earn pocket money. (Thinkstock/Getty Images)

The law restricts the types of jobs and the hours a child under the age of 16 is allowed to perform. Most countries don't allow children to work at all until they are 14 years of age. In the UK, children can work part-time from the age of 13. That just means that 12-year-olds need to become a little more creative when it comes to ideas for making extra pocket money. The jobs must also be easy to perform since a 12-year-old still has a lot of growing up to do.

Deliver newspapers or flyers for local businesses. A 12-year-old can easily ride a bike to deliver newspapers on a paper round. He could also go around and ask any local businesses if they have any flyers they need distributing.

Put up signs for a mother's helper in a shop or ask a family friend or neighbour. You could make money playing with the mother's children while mum cooks dinner. You may also be asked to help with a few of the easier household chores.

Make a snack mix and sell it to other children st school or in the neighbourhood. You can make the snack mix any way that you want, so it is easy to do. Just throw a combination of popcorn, biscuits, crisps, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips or cereal together. Separate it into individual plastic bags and sell them on the school bus or in your school's playground.

Become a dog walker or a pet sitter. Many pet owners don't have time to take their dogs for a long walk so they look to hire someone else to do it. Also, if your parents approve, you could offer to do some pet sitting jobs. For example, the next time the owner of a hamster or gerbil goes on holiday, you can drop in once a day to take care of it, earning some easy money.

Start your own lawn care business. You can easily mow lawns in the summer, rake leaves in the autumn, and shovel snow in the winter. You may want to charge an hourly rate instead of saying £6 per lawn. Some lawns are larger than others so an hourly rate is more fair. All you have to do is hand out flyers to get a few customers or ask family friends. Those customers may then recommend you to others if you do a good job.

Tip

Offer to wash your parents' car at the weekend to earn extra pocket money. Word may get around the street that you're up for cleaning cars so may get requests from neighbours too.

Warning

Never take on a job without getting your parents' permission first.

Tips and warnings

Offer to wash your parents' car at the weekend to earn extra pocket money. Word may get around the street that you're up for cleaning cars so may get requests from neighbours too.